SUMMARY OF THE LESSON
This is a real incident of a teenager Zan Gaudioso. In this story, he had to face such a situation that it changed his life completely. After leaving junior high, he felt it strange starting over as a freshman. The school was twice as big as his old school, and to make matters worse, his closest friends went to some different high schools. He felt very isolated. He often went to meet his old teachers. They encouraged him to get involved in school activities.
One Sunday afternoon he was sitting at home at his dining room table doing homework. His little cat was sitting on the table. His mother was stoking the fire to keep the house nice and warm. Suddenly, he smelt something strange and then noticed some smoke pouring in through the seams of the ceiling. The author ran to the neighbors to call the fire department, while his mother ran back into the house and then ran out of the house carrying a small metal box full of important documents. She again went into the house. The author was screaming and trying to go after his mother but the firemen stopped him by holding him tightly. After some time, a fireman emerged from the house with his mom. Five hours later, the fire was finally out. The house was almost completely burnt down. The next day, Monday, he went to school wearing weird clothes, and returning from there he went to his burnt and damaged house. They had to borrow money from his grandparents because there were no credit cards, cash, or even any identification to be able to withdraw money from the bank. Everything had gone up in smoke.
The next day at school, people were acting even more strangely than usual. He was getting ready for gym class at his locker. People were milling around him, asking him to hurry up. All his friends, teachers, and others had taken up a collection and had bought him school supplies, notebooks, and all kinds of different clothes. Each new person was introducing himself to the author warmly. A month later, the author was at his house watching them rebuild it. But this time it was different—he wasn’t alone. Now the author’s life has changed and he feels gratitude for his life, his new friends, the kindness of a stranger, and the loud purr of his beloved cat.
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